Recently, in the field of silver halide photographic materials, in particular those used for photography, photographic light-sensitive materials having super-high sensitivity as typically illustrated by ISO 1,600 films or those having high image quality (color reproducibility, sharpness) suitable for use in small format cameras as typically illustrated by 110 sized cameras such as disc cameras, in order to provide prints of high magnification of enlargement have been desired.
For the purpose of improving color reproducibility and sharpness, a method of improving color reproducibility by utilizing an interimage effect and of improving sharpness by utilizing an edge effect is known. In such methods, DIR compounds as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,554, etc., more preferably diffusible DIR compounds as described in Japanese patent application (OPI) No. 7150/83 (the term "OPI" as used herein means a "published unexamined Japanese patent application"), etc. are employed.
On the other hand, in order to prevent contamination of a developing solution due to substances discharged from photographic light-sensitive materials during development or introduction of desensitizing substances from the developing solution into the photographic light-sensitive materials, the use of a light-insensitive fine grain silver halide emulsion has recently increased.
However, when a DIR compound is employed together with a fine grain silver halide emulsion, it is recognized that the interimage effect is severely decreased. There have been hitherto known a combination of a DIR compound and a light-sensitive silver halide fine grain as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,460, a combination of a diffusible DIR compound incorporated into an emulsion layer and a light-insensitive silver halide fine grain, and a combination of a diffusible DIR compound incorporated into a light-insensitive layer and a light-insensitive silver halide fine grain. In any case, since DIR compounds are employed together with silver halide fine grains, the addition of a large amount of DIR compounds is necessary and it causes various subsidiary adverse affects, for example, an increase in layer thickness, etc.
It has also been desired to expand the exposure latitude in order to meet requirement for obtaining photographs of high image quality under various exposure conditions. For this purpose, the use of a light-sensitive fine grain silver halide emulsion has further increased. Consequently, the above described problem becomes more significant.